✨ Agentics Template

A template to get started with GitHub Agentic Workflows.

Warning

GitHub Agentic Workflows are a research demonstrator. This template is for experimental use only. Use at your own risk.

Quick Setup

To use GitHub Agentic Workflows with Copilot, you need to configure a COPILOT_GITHUB_TOKEN. GitHub Actions provides a default GITHUB_TOKEN automatically, but it doesn't have the permissions needed for Copilot features.

Setting Up Your Copilot Token

Step 1: Create the Token

• Go to GitHub Settings → Personal Access Tokens → Fine-grained tokens
• Configure the token:
  • Token name: "Copilot Agentic Workflows"
  • Resource owner: Your user account
  • Repository access: Choose "Public repositories" or select specific repos
  • Permissions:
    • Account permissions → Copilot Requests: Access ✅ (Required)
• Click Generate token and copy the token value

Step 2: Add Token to Your Repository

• Go to your repository → Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions
• Click New repository secret
• Enter the secret name: COPILOT_GITHUB_TOKEN
• Paste your token value
• Click Add secret

That's it! Your workflows can now use Copilot.

Additional Tokens (Advanced)

For advanced workflows, you may need additional tokens:

Token Name	When You Need It	Required For
GH_AW_GITHUB_TOKEN	Cross-repo operations	Accessing other repositories, remote GitHub tools
GH_AW_PROJECT_GITHUB_TOKEN	GitHub Projects v2	Creating/updating project boards
GH_AW_AGENT_TOKEN	Agent assignments	Assigning Copilot bots to issues/PRs

Creating Cross-Repository Token

For workflows that need to access multiple repositories:

• Go to GitHub Settings → Personal Access Tokens → Fine-grained tokens
• Configure the token:
  • Token name: "Agentic Workflows Cross-Repo"
  • Repository access: "All repositories" or select specific repos
  • Permissions:
    • Repository permissions:
      • Contents: Read (minimum) or Read+Write (for creating PRs)
      • Issues: Read+Write (for issue operations)
      • Pull requests: Read+Write (for PR operations)
• Click Generate token and copy the token value
• Add to repository secrets as GH_AW_GITHUB_TOKEN

Creating Projects Token

For workflows that manage GitHub Projects:

For User-owned Projects:

• Use a Classic PAT with project scope
• Fine-grained PATs do not work with user-owned Projects

For Organization-owned Projects:

• Go to GitHub Settings → Personal Access Tokens → Fine-grained tokens
• Configure the token:
  • Token name: "Agentic Workflows Projects"
  • Repository access: Select specific repos or "All repositories"
  • Organization permissions (must be explicitly granted):
    • Organization access: Grant to the target organization
    • Projects: Read+Write
• Click Generate token and copy the token value
• Add to repository secrets as GH_AW_PROJECT_GITHUB_TOKEN

Creating Agent Assignment Token

For workflows that assign Copilot bots to issues or pull requests:

• Go to GitHub Settings → Personal Access Tokens → Fine-grained tokens
• Configure the token:
  • Token name: "Agentic Workflows Agent"
  • Repository access: Select specific repos
  • Permissions:
    • Repository permissions:
      • Actions: Write
      • Contents: Write
      • Issues: Write
      • Pull requests: Write
• Click Generate token and copy the token value
• Add to repository secrets as GH_AW_AGENT_TOKEN

Debugging Workflows

When your agentic workflows need debugging or optimization:

• Quick automated fixes: Comment /q in any issue or PR to automatically optimize workflows
• Interactive debugging: In GitHub Copilot Chat, select debug-agentic-workflow from the agents dropdown for guided troubleshooting

See AGENTS.md for comprehensive debugging guides and examples.

Learn More

• GitHub Agentic Workflows Documentation
• Token Configuration Reference